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Kherans/Culture
Kherans are a warrior race with strong emphasis in hand-to-hand combat and honor. Prior to the extended conflict with the Daemonites, the Kherans were an expansionist, imperialistic intergalactic empire comprising of several solar systems. At their peak, they have 57 distinct solar systems under their command (including Krypton), though at current in game time, they only have control of 26. Though they believe themselves noble and protective of other species, the Kherans are quite species-ist, looking down upon other species while perceiving themselves as tolerant and benevolent. Their particular 'flavor' of benevolence involves sending a Planet Shaper to a world they wish to conquer, which fundamentally alters the DNA of any indigenous species into a race more suitable for the Kheran people to use as a servitor race (this is how the creation of the Shapers, Adarastea, and Titanthropes came to be). Politics Older and more powerful Kherans are named Lords. The Lords control the political system, which is nominally a republic, however, not all races are represented equally by any means. The Kherans have a political system where various parties vie for power. The various factions include: * The Pantheon, the party of the Lords. They are currently in power and stand for stability and economic progress. The Pantheon controls the law-making structure for the Kheran Empire; as all members of the Council are also members of the Pantheon. * The Priestesses, which is the female Lords who have given birth. They generally stand for what little religion there is and cultural progress-- in theory. In practice, they, like the other factions, simply want power. * The Coda, a Sisterhood of warriors. They want war and combat to prove their worth. They have a voice on the Council, represented in Council conclaves by their leader. * The Shapers Guild represents all Shapers within Kheran society. They have a representative to the Council, though their representative may speak regarding issues, they have no vote on matters of law or war. * The Titantropes also have a voice, but not a vote. * The Brotherhood of the Blade: a male version of the Coda, is composed entirely of Adastrea and Shapers. They devote their whole life to the mastery of bladed weapons and suppressing their own emotions. The Brotherhood on Earth betrayed Khera and allied themselves with the Daemonites. They have neither a voice nor a vote ont he Council, though their interests are represented by the Coda. * The Adarastea: a race of Kherubim empaths, originally bred to be slaves, but they soon became the largest crime syndicate in Kheran society. They are considered the lowest caste, and have neither voice nor vote on the Council. Religion The Coda nominally worship a goddess, Hecate, but little is known about this religion. It is unknown if this Hecate has any relation to the Greek Titaness of the same name, though speculation may indicate this is the case. Other Kherans do not worship any gods, but believe in individual enlightenment through Ascension. High Lords are capable of undergoing the ritual of Ascension when they are ready. The Ascension ritual is an important part of Kheran culture, where a Lord asks a partner or good friend to destroy his/her body so that his/her spirit can be free. A Lord usually has so much energy stored in his/her body that this process tends to consume both Kherans. It is believed that a High Lord exists in a higher plane of existence after this process. Technology While preferring bladed weapons in combat, Kherans are technologically advanced, though their overall technology level has actually declined since their apex (shortly before the Daemonite War). Most of their technological capability, such as the building of Planet Shapers, was made through their use of the Creation Engine, and after it was no longer functional, they lost the ability to create any of the technology that relied on the Creation Engine's presence. They own and can build spaceships capable of interstellar flight, often fitted with high-yield energy weapons and powerful force-fields. Nearly all their vessels are warships, but in the present day they rarely leave Khera and the immediately surrounding systems. As a species, they do need their spaceships to move through interstellar and local space, as only their Warlords are capable of Self-Sustenance. They can create effectively unlimited clean energy sources. As such, almost all of the planets in their empire are not subject to much of the effects from pollution and environmental effects that are experienced on Earth. They are capable of creating fully sentient artificial intelligences, as well as storing the personalities and memories of individuals in electronic form, and uploading them to technological bodies (such as a Spartan Guard). This is, however, very rarely done, as it is not an easy task and the personality matrices are not always fully realizable. Further, there seems to be some cultural distaste for the practices of moving a consciousness into technological body; likely in part due to the extreme beliefs held by the Kherans as a whole that they are a superior race and that moving to an android or gynoid body would be a 'downgrade'. They are capable of inscribing knowledge in the form of organic molecules, which when injected into the bloodstream downloads that knowledge straight into the brain. They are capable of manipulating the laws of chance, simply for the purpose of entertainment as their 'Coincidental Mansion' shows. They have mastered the use of extradimensional space, allowing them to create structures and containers that are larger on the inside than the outside. They have extremely extensive knowledge of genetic engineering, though they rarely apply it anymore, with the destruction of the Creation Engine. Armies of very advanced androids known as the Spartan Guards serve as soldiers. Spartan Guards have shown high intelligence and superhuman physical capabilities. Kherubim Planet Shapers can terraform worlds and alter living DNA, and can remain functional for billions of years. Children and Childbirth Due to their low fertility, every Kheran man and woman of age has to mate with an appointed partner, chosen by the Pantheon, whenever the female shows signs of fertility. If the woman gives birth, she must become a priestess. If not, she may go on to live her life as she wishes. Despite many of their technological advances, their advances in medication and fertility are lacking, likely due to their societal complacency. They believe they understand everything they need to know about themselves (due to their capability for DNA manipulation). It is quite likely that fertile Kheran women are capable of bearing more than one child over their long life span (given that the Kheran, Zannah, has birthed twice, Kenesha and Winter), however, their cultural removal of proven fertile women from the breeding pool by placing them within the priestesshood is unwise. Society and Relationships There are strong bonds between parent and child. Where as a general rule, sexuality is a fairly open topic that most Kherans are indifferent to-- the taking of lovers is neither frowned upon nor met with any great sense of romance or emotion-- long-term, emotional ties between Kherubim is frowned upon, and between Kherubim and their subject races is expressly forbidden. There is no concept in their culture for 'life mates' or of 'marriage'. Culturally, one has allies in battle (and politics, which are battles of a different kind); but even this is limited to the battlefield, and allegiances and alliances can shift easily. The one 'true love' for any Kheran is duty, their lifemate is honor, and their desire is in combat. Many Kherans can seem borderline asexual for long periods of their lives-- this is considered as normal as it would be to take as many lovers as possible. Whether this is due to a lower sex drive or if it is due to the warrior culture is not made clear. Category:Theme